@2 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. FE® 44 
to apply barnyard manure. A certain class 
of farmers flippantly assert that the best time 
is when you have the manure to apply; but a 
majority of those most thoroughly informed 
on the subject apply it during September and 
October. I have applied it, and seen large 
quantities of it applied in fall, winter and 
spring; and in every case the subsequent crop 
very plainly indicated that fall is the best 
time, and spring the worst, fred grundy. 
Christian Co., Ill. 
The most general approval of chemical fer¬ 
tilizers is in potato growing, on account of 
the tubers being cleaner. The soil of the best 
farms near here is limestone—Silurian. Plaster 
is much less used than formerly, but lime, in¬ 
creasingly, is the favorite application next 
to stable manure. This is fully appreciated, 
and is of ready sale at town stables. I cannot 
hear of salt being used with any manifest good 
result, or, indeed, of its being tried on farm 
crops. Wood ashes have an excellent effect 
on some Silurian soils, but on the shales and 
the fossiliferous limestone of the later Devo¬ 
nian strata it does not here show any such 
marked effect. In newly-cleared limestone 
land plaster seems a necessity for the growth 
of clover and maize, and lime shows little 
effect until the land has been tilled for some 
years. I knew two cases where lime had been 
freely applied to parts of two fields some miles 
apart and the result was that Indian corn 
could not be grown on those areas through 
sixty years after. It would grow knee-high 
and then dwindle. That was thirty years ago; 
whether the land recovered later I cannot tell. 
If I remember aright, wheat grew fairly well 
and oats very well. 
We use stable manure, as it is readily ob¬ 
tainable and sure in effect. When it can be 
put on the land quite fresh, without any in¬ 
convenience, we much prefer that as the best 
economy. We tried collecting the liquid 
manure from stabling in a cemented tank 
from cemented gutters, but found it too 
difficult of application to growing crops. We 
prefer using dry material to absorb it and so 
haul it out at once or compost it under cover. 
But our compost is chiefly the underfoot ac¬ 
cumulation in sheds and stables that are 
not cleaned out until the manure is wanted 
at planting time. This retains all its strength, 
as the compact treading effectually prevents 
heating and the copious dry littering absorbs 
and retains all the liquid voidings. This is 
an application of the principles of the silo, in 
which there is certainly economy and profit 
of the most satisfactory sort. w. 
Tyrone, Pa. 
MANURE NOTES, 
The value of the chemical fertilizers manu¬ 
factured and imported during 1880 is given 
as $31,000,000. Last year we estimated this 
value at $38,000,000. The hen manure pro¬ 
duced in a single year has a value of $19,000,- 
000. The manure from cattle, if it could be 
all collected and properly preserved, would be 
worth $328,000,000, that from horses and 
mules $84,000,000, that from sheep $96,000,000, 
that from hogs $210,000,000, while over $50,- 
000,000 worth of night-soil is the yearly pro¬ 
duct on farms and in towns where no system 
of water drainage is in practice. There is no 
need of “soil exhaustion.” The fertilizers are 
yearly produced. Are they used? 
Chemical Fertilizer sown broadcast on 
a field in which there are several steep hills 
did but little good. A soaking rain washed 
the greater part of it out of the soil. That in 
the drills, several inches below the surface, 
was not washed out to any extent. 
Analysis shows that the difference between 
horse manure and cow manure is not excessive. 
The amount of nitrogen is practically the 
same in each, while there is a slight excess 
of ash in the horse manure. All know that 
horse manure is generally quicker in its 
action and that it generates more heat. The 
explanation given for this is that the great 
excess of water in the cow manure prevents 
its rapid heating and decomposition. Still 
we know that manure from cows fed on rich 
food will heat and decompose more rapidly. 
There is generally too much water in cow 
manure. Those who allow the manure pile 
to remain without shelter, substitute an ele¬ 
ment already in excess for valuable elements 
for which farmers are searching the earth. 
Occasionally one can find, even in this 
country, a German farmer who practices the 
old-time system of “paring and burning.” 
We know of one or two instances where this 
system has been employed quite successfully 
on waste land covered with brush and weeds. 
The system consists in “paring” the land or 
cutting the sward into sods about three feet 
long and one foot wide. In old times a tool 
designed particularly for this work was in 
use. The sods are well dried and then burned 
in small heaps, after which the ashes are scat¬ 
tered on the iand and plowed in. In portions 
of England, 100 years ago, this practice was 
quite general, particularly upon heavy clay 
soils. The apparent advantages of the system 
are that by the process of burning all weed- 
roots and seeds are destroyed, also all eggs of 
insects and all spores of fungi, while the ac¬ 
tion of fire on thick, heavy clays is to render 
them more friable and to render their potash 
more available. Various experiments relat¬ 
ing to the practice are recorded. In almost 
every instance “paring and burning,” heavy 
clay soils gave an increase in crops and im¬ 
proved the texture of the soil. To determine 
the action of fire upon heavy clays, Voelcker 
made analyses of such soils in their natural 
state and also after a thorough roasting. In 
every instance the amount of materials soluble 
in acids was increased from three to 10 per 
cent, by the roasting, with a corresponding 
increase of available potash, phosphoric acid 
and lime, with, however, a loss of nitrogen. 
What shall be done with the sewage of the 
cities? Every year this question is asked. 
The most elaborate figures are given to prove 
that millions of dollars are annually wasted 
in fertilizing materials in the sewage from 
New York City alone. The value of the fer¬ 
tilizer cannot be questioned. The elements 
are there but the fact remains that they are 
in such a combination that they cannot be 
profitably handled for fertilizing purposes. 
There is nitrogen in leather but the process of 
rendering it available is so expensive that 
farmers find it cheaper to buy it in other 
forms. So with sewage as it is swept out 
from our modern system of aqueducts and 
water closets. In some American cities, ac¬ 
cording to Prof. Storer, the average consump¬ 
tion of water for each inhabitant amounts to 
100 gallons or more daily, so that a ton of 
sewage as ordinarily discharged contains but 
two or three pounds of dry matter. A ton of 
Boston sewage actually contained but about 
one cent’s worth of plant food. The folly of 
attempting to recover this cent’s worth from 
the ton of water while fertilizers are at their 
present prices is evident. Prof. Storer quotes 
David Forbes as saying that the value of sew¬ 
age is about like that of a bottle of brandy 
poured into a barrel of water. The brandy 
could be regained by distilling all the water, 
but the labor would render it pretty high- 
priced. At present the drainage of large 
cities is purely a sanitary measure. 
Students of agriculture are familiar with 
the experiments made by Jared Eliot in 1747. 
He made a long, narrow yard into which his 
cattle were turned at night. Once a month 
the end fences were taken out and the whole 
surface of the yard well plowed. The end 
fences were then replaced and the cattle turn¬ 
ed in on the plowed ground. This was kept 
up through the summer, and in the fall the 
bottom of the yard was carted out and spread 
upon the fields. When any field needed special 
manuring, this yard was made as near to it 
as possible. The system of folding sheep on 
plowed ground and “cow-penning,” as prac¬ 
ticed in parts of the South, are outgrowths of 
this old system. So is the more modern sys¬ 
tem of spading poultry yards frequently and 
carting out the surface soil for juse in farm 
practice. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
nd address of the writer to insure attention. Before 
asking a question, please see if It is not answered In 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.l 
DROPSY, SWEENY AND INTERNAL WORMS 
IN A HORSE. 
A. C., Carbon Block, Pa. —1. I traded for a 
mare about four weeks ago. She is to have a 
colt about May 1. Tne man who sold her said 
she was only about nine ^years old; but a 
neighbor says she is 18. When I got her she 
had a very sore shoulder extending on the left 
side from the mane down nearly to the breast, 
and a sore back of the left ear. They have 
all become nearly well; but about a week ago 
she began to swell under the belly, and now 
the belly is swollen from the rounding at the 
back part of it to within six inches of the front 
legs, and pressure with the fingers leaves a 
dent. There are also wind-puffs on the inside 
of her hind legs and on the outside near the 
hock joint. What ails her? She has also 
sweeny in both shoulders, what will cure it? 
2. A nine-year-old horse eats well, but is not 
in good condition, though she has been fed 
well and worked very little for some time. 
She is getting poorer all the time, and gets 
into a sweat quickly when started at light 
work. What is the matter? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
1. The mare is suffering from acute an¬ 
asarca, judging from the swellings along the 
abdomen. Give frequent injections of warm 
water to relieve any constipation, and keep 
the bowels moving freely. Then give as a 
drench one half ounce of chlorate of potash, 
and follow with two-dram doses of the chlor¬ 
ate every four hours until the swellings sub¬ 
side. If the urine becomes scanty or high- 
colored give two or four drams of nitrate of 
potash three times daily until relieved. If 
the animal appears weak with loss of appetite, 
give one ounce each of powdered gentian and 
sweet spirits of niter thrice daily. You give 
no history or description of the sores on the 
neck. I will therefore suppose they are su¬ 
perficial, in which case daily dressings of car- 
bolated vaseline will probably be all that is 
required. For the sweeny and puffs treat¬ 
ment is usually useless in animals of her con¬ 
dition and age. If you desire to treat them, 
however, repeated blistering might produce 
results. I have but little sympathy for any 
intelligent farmer who will knowingly pur¬ 
chase or handle a mare in the condition in 
which this one must have been when you re¬ 
ceived her. They are unprofitable stock to 
handle, to say nothing of the inconvenience 
and trouble of having them around,and might 
better be left to the jockey or professional 
horse-trader. 2. The horse is evidently badly 
out of condition, but whether due to worms 
or some other cause we cannot say definitely 
from your description. We suspect, however, 
that intestinal worms may be the trouble in 
part at least, and the animal might safely be 
treated accordingly. Feed sparingly and 
give a large bran mash every night for a week 
to loosen the bowels. Then continue the same 
light diet and mashes for another week, and 
in addition give two drams each tartar emetic, 
sulphate of iron and aloes and one dram car¬ 
bolic acid in a pint of linseed gruel every 
morning before feeding. Following the last 
dose, give three to five drams Barbadoes aloes 
according to the condition of the bowels. 
Omit the aloes if the bowels become too loose. 
Also give two or three injections during the 
week of two or three quarts each of a strong 
solution of quassia, to remove the worms from 
the lower colon and rectum. The solution 
should be milk-warm and slowly injected, so 
as to be retained for a few hours. As a tonic 
to be given after the above treatment, give 
the following powders night and morning: 
One-half ounce each powdered gentian, ginger 
and sodium bicarbonate. On alternate weeks 
replace the soda by two drams of sulphate of 
iron. Allow but very little exercise during 
the second week of treatment. 
PASSAGE OF FOOD THROUGH THE STOMACHS 
OF CATTLE. 
F. O. C., Washington, Kan— How can I 
get ungrouud oats and corn into the fourth 
stomach of cows so as to insure digestion? 
ANSWERED BY HENRY STEWART. 
This query is an instance of how an errone¬ 
ous statement once made, remains in force 
and misdirects public opinion long after it has 
been disproved. It is popularly supposed 
[havrng been so stated by a well-known writ¬ 
er) that grain food—ground or unground— 
passes the first three compartments of the 
stomach of ruminants, and goes directly into 
the fourth compartment (which is the true di¬ 
gestive stomach) and there escapes digestion. 
This is impossible, for the reason that the 
third compartment, or maniplies, intervenes 
between the second and fourth compartments 
and food cannot pass directly from one to the 
other of these without going eutirely through 
the third. But for the full digestion of food 
by a ruminating animal, it should go through 
the process of rumination, or a second masti¬ 
cation,and copious salivation. Hence it is de¬ 
sirable to give grain food with some bulky 
mixture, so that it is forced to stay in the first 
or second compartments for a time, and then 
be returned to the mouth in the form of the 
cud. From some years’ experience I have 
found that there is very little danger of grain 
or meal being carried through a cow’s stom¬ 
ach, even when fed alone, and passing un¬ 
digested, no more than is common with 
horses. Cows and oxen that are fed dry meal 
or corn on the ear after their hay or fodder 
do not pass any larger quantity of the grain 
undigested than the horses and colts do, and 
quite as much waste grain goes out of the 
horse stable as from the cattle shed. A lot of 
calves fed whole oats twice a day, and which 
occasionally get a few ears of corn, seem to di¬ 
gest the whole, as there is no apparent waste 
in the manure. If the grain is most conve¬ 
niently fed whole, the corn and oats might be 
mixed with advantage; but if it can be ground 
very fine, as should always be done, the 
meal will be digested, if fed alone, quite as 
well as the other food, unless water is given 
very soon afterwards, by which the food will 
be carried into the bowels. In feeding corn 
to cattle it is better to give it in the ear and 
in the husk, by which the grain is better mas¬ 
ticated and digested. 
LUNG AND THROAT TROUBLE IN POULTRY. 
C. J. B., Bayvieiv, L. I .—What is the mat¬ 
ter with a flock of poultry? They stand or sit 
around dumpish, with their heads drawn 
down to the body, frequently shaking their 
heads and making a sort of sneeze or chirp 
when eating. Their eyelids are often closed 
as if they are asleep. The droppings are 
sticky, of a dark yellow or brownish color and 
very offensive in smell. In bad cases, water 
and matter run from the eyes, and the nostrils 
become closed up, and generally one eye closes 
and is swollen all around. In other cases, the 
trouble is in the throat or air-passages, and 
they make a wheezing noise and gasp for 
breath. 
ANSWERED BY HENRY HALES. 
Fowls in the condition here described may 
be so from any one of several causes, such as 
overcrowding, colds, ill-ventilated houses, 
irregular feeding, or, what is very common, 
the late hatching of the chickens, which do 
not get sufficient strength to withstand the 
cold. These sometimes sicken first and spread 
the trouble to other fowls. From the above 
short description of the facts concerning these 
fowls I cannot pretend to say which of these 
causes produced the trouble; but evidently it 
has been allowed to proceed too far. The 
fowls are roupy. The owner should go 
through his stock, examine them singly and 
remove every bad case, such as have swelled 
eyes or heads, and all those that have a white 
substance growing in the throat or mouth, or 
that smell offensively either in plumage or 
breath. In such, the disease is highly conta¬ 
gious. Kill and bury them away from the 
premises, unless any are very valuable. The 
disease must be stamped out. If any are 
worth the trouble, here is a remedy: If there 
is room for separating those that are slightly 
ailing—that have watery eyes or nostrils with¬ 
out offensive smell—remove them from the 
main flock. There are several ways of treat¬ 
ing the worst cases, but they amount to about 
the same: Bathe the head with vinegar and 
warm water with a drop of carbolic acid 
(white solution) in it twice a day, and give 
one of the prepared roup cures sold in poul¬ 
try supply stores. If it cannot be had readi¬ 
ly, here is a good recipe: Ground quassia, 
two ounces; ground ginger, half an ounce; 
ground blood root, half a dram; cay¬ 
enne, half a dram, and carbolic acid crys¬ 
tals one-quarter of a dram each, dissolved 
in warm water. This must be thoroughly 
compounded with molasses, care being taken 
that the carbolic acid is well dissolved and 
distributed. Add twice the bulk of wheat or 
corn meal; make into pills and give to each 
ailing bird one the size of a large soup bean 
once or twice a day. For the troublesome 
growth in the mouth or throat, dissolve sul¬ 
phite of silver, the size of a pea, in a table¬ 
spoonful of warm water. Apply to the white 
substance with a camel’s-bair brush twice a 
day till the growth rots off. It should be 
strong enough to darken the substance at a 
touch. Be careful that the solution does not 
run down the throat. Do not try to tear off 
the substance till it is loose and rotten. Some 
recommend to scrape it off first, but this is 
useless cruelty. For the slightly ailing, give 
a little of the first preparation mixed in their 
soft food for two days. For the healthy 
fowls, as a preventive, give a little cayenne 
in the soft food, and give all Douglas Mixture 
in their drinking water—a teaspoonful to each 
pint of water—till they are well. 
HELLEBORE FOR INSECTS ON FRUITS. 
W. P. C., Smyrna, Del .—Is a solution of 
white hellebore, two pounds to 100 gallons of 
water, efficacious for the destruction of the 
pear slug? How many applications will be 
necessary? How should it be applied? Where 
may the apparatus be obtained? Would the 
solution be so poisonous to the berries (1 have 
blackberries growing in the pear rows and be¬ 
tween) and pears as to make them unfit for 
use? What of the effects of the solution on 
currants for the currant worm? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 
White hellebore would prove a good specific 
in fighting the cherry and pear tree slug; 
(Selandria cerasi) but I would never 
use it. It is best never to use poisons when 
non-poisonous substances will answer as 
well. Thus I would never use the arsenites 
where other less poisonous insecticides would 
prove efficient. In fighting the currant slug, 
hellebore is to be recommended, as it kills the 
slugs and is so slightly poisonous that though 
it has been used for many yes rs in Europe and 
America, yet I have never heard of any barm 
from its use; besides I know of no safer specific 
